Exclusive | Chinese former duck farmer buys big in Vancouver: first a US$39m home, then a US$3.9m car, now a downtown hotel

Tycoon Chen Mailin, once a member of China’s top political advisory body, is revealed in a lawsuit as the new owner of the 213-room Metropolitan Hotel Vancouver

Chen previously paid the highest price ever for a home in the Canadian city, before his credit card was used to buy a customised Bugatti Chiron supercar

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Chinese tycoon Chen Mailin is the new owner of the Metropolitan Hotel Vancouver. Photos: Marriott / Dingye Group

Published: 2:42am, 17 Dec 2019Updated: 10:54pm, 17 Dec 2019

Chen Mailin, a Chinese former duck farmer turned tycoon, has made a habit of big purchases in Vancouver.

Five years ago he bought a 17,000 sq ft Italianate mansion in Point Grey, one of the city's most expensive neighbourhoods, for what is thought to have been the highest price ever paid for a home in the city (or Canada, for that matter): C$51.8 million (US$39 million).

Then, this April, his Union Pay credit card was used by his son to pay C$5.1 million (US$3.9 million) for what is surely one of the city’s most expensive cars – a customised Bugatti Chiron.

Now, a lawsuit has revealed that Chen – a former member of the Chinese government’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – is the new owner of the 213-room Metropolitan Hotel Vancouver in the city’s downtown core.

Chen Mailin bought his home on Vancouver’s Drummond Drive for C$51.8 million. It may have been the costliest home ever bought in Canada. Photo: SCMP Picture

The luxury hotel, currently part of the Marriott chain, also includes 7,600 sq ft of conference space and one of the city’s best-known high-end restaurants, Diva at the Met.